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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When two 17-year-old friends are sentenced to hard labor in a Chinese mountain village, they expect the worst. Because of their talents as storytellers, the two are assigned to visit a bigger town, see a film, return and tell the story to the villagers.
- Sales Rank: #2493463 in Books
- Published on: 2002-08
- Format: Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Binding: Audio CD
From Publishers Weekly
The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting the plots and dialogue of movies. When another city boy leaves the mountains, the friends steal a suitcase full of forbidden books he has been hiding, knowing he will be afraid to call the authorities. Enchanted by the prose of a host of European writers, they dare to tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he might have hoped for, and leads to an unexpected, droll and poignant conclusion. The warmth and humor of Sijie's prose and the clarity of Rilke's translation distinguish this slim first novel, a wonderfully human tale. (Sept. 17)Forecast: Sijie's debut was a best-seller and prize winner in France in 2000, and rights have been sold in 19 countries; it is also scheduled to be made into a film. Its charm translates admirably strong sales can be expected on this side of the Atlantic.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-This beautifully presented novella tracks the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Sons of doctors and dentists, their days are now spent muscling buckets of excrement up the mountainside and mining coal. But the boys-Luo and the unnamed narrator-receive a bit of a reprieve when the villagers discover their talents as storytellers; they are sent on monthly treks to town, tasked with watching a movie and relating it in detail on their return. It is here that they encounter the little seamstress of the title, whom Luo falls for instantly. When, through a series of comic and clever tricks and favors, the boys acquire a suitcase full of forbidden Western literature, Luo decides to "re-educate" the ignorant girl whom he hopes will become his intellectual match. That a bit of Balzac can have an aphrodisiac effect is a happy bonus. Ultimately, the book is a simple, lovely telling of a classic boy-meets-girl scenario with a folktale's smart, surprising bite at the finish. The story movingly captures Maoism's attempts to imprison one's mind and heart (with the threat of the same for one's body), the shock of the sudden cultural shift for "bourgeois" Chinese, and the sheer delight that books can offer a downtrodden spirit. Though these moments are fewer after the love story is introduced, teens will enjoy them at least as much as the comic and romantic strands.
Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This deceptively small novel has the power to bring down governments. In Mao's China, the Cultural Revolution rages, and two friends caught in the flames find themselves shuttled off to the remote countryside for reeducation. The stolid narrator occasionally comforts himself by playing the violin, and both he and more outgoing friend Luo find that they have a talent for entertaining others with their re-creations of films they have seen. A little light comes their way when they meet the stunning daughter of the tailor in the town nearby, with whom Luo launches an affair. But the real coup is discovering a cache of forbidden Western literature including, of course, Balzac that forces open their world like a thousand flowers blooming. The literature proves their undoing, however, finally losing them the one thing that has sustained them. Dai Sijie, who was himself reeducated in early 1970s China before fleeing to France, wonderfully communicates the awesome power of literature of which his novel is proof. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The solution: Ban the classics!...
By John P. Jones III
And the problem? Why do so very few people read any serious works? And why do even a smaller subset of those read some old “fusty” classic? Like sex, if it is “forbidden,” it only heightens one’s interest.
Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966. It was his response to the failure of his “Great Leap Forward,” which he commenced in 1958, in the hopes of rapidly industrializing the country, and featured, in part, Chinese peasants attempting to make steel in their backyards. The Cultural Revolution attempted to rid the society of bourgeois and foreign influences, and this included Western literature, such as that written by Honoré de Balzac. The author of this work, Dai Sijie, would live through this very difficult period. So would I! But, fortunately, outside China, and I remember the news reports as being very sketchy as to what was truly transpiring in the country. Dai Sijie provides confirmation that it was a very unpleasant time with society in a self-destructive mode, with enemies under every proverbial bed. Hum. Other societies have also been there. Dai Sijie would eventually be permitted to immigrate to France, in 1984.
The novel opens in 1971. Luo is 18. The unnamed narrator is 17. Both have been uprooted from their homes in Chengdu, a city of four million people, which is the capital of Szechuan province, with a population of 100 million. They have been sent to a very remote mountain village, high on Phoenix of the Sky Mountain, which is accessible only by foot, for “re-education,” since they have been identified as members of the bourgeois class. Luo’s father is a dentist, and had worked on “the Great Helmsman of the Revolution” himself, Chairman Mao. That connection did not save him from a graphically described public humiliation in the stadium. The narrator’s parents are intellectuals of sort, teachers, and hence the (perhaps) one way ticket to Phoenix of the Sky Mountain. When they arrive, they are carrying a violin. The peasants have never seen one before, and are prepared to destroy it. Luo plays a sonata on it. Quick thinking, by calling the musical piece “Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao” saved the instrument.
It is a re-education, or, at least a different education. One of their assigned tasks is to carry the human and animal fertilizer (a/k/a fecal material) to the fields in baskets on their backs. Despite this, and other unpleasantness, they do manage to “game” the system fairly well, and are soon permitted to go to a neighboring town, see the movie, and provide a narration of it in the evenings to the villagers. In their travels, they meet another son of the bourgeois, aptly named “four-eyes.” They discover his cache of forbidden Western literature (in translation), with Balzac’s works being preeminent. And then there is the matter of love coupled with lust, for the most attractive young women in another village, a young seamstress whose father is one also, and most conveniently travels a lot. Luo wants to use the Western literature to “re-educate” the young seamstress out of her peasant origins. Dai Sijie stirs these elements into a page-turning story.
This novel recalled Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which concerned another non-Western culture during a time of oppression, and a few people who would use Western literature as a sanity life-preserver. I felt that Dai Sijie did a much better job with this central theme.
‘Tis a shame, because I continue to like the idea of a “re-education” of sorts, more in the form of a highly incentivized form of “national service” whereby, in particular, the elites have a couple of years experiencing how the “deplorables” live. Admittedly, it did not work out very well during the Cultural Revolution, and the concept of “national service” has very little traction among the hustling elites who would be resentful of any break in their career moves, which would include reading Balzac.
For Dai Sijie experience, and tales from the Cultural Revolution, with its positive side-effect of instilling a deep appreciation for the classics, 5-stars.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A MUST for book lovers..
By Ram Sam
Set during the re-education of the Chinese well to do, this little novel is breath taking. Not the most lyrical, as it has been translated and re-released, but the message of the story is profound.
As books have been banned, what is the price to find and have access to forbidden books? As our main characters dream of the lives they once had and the world that is waiting for them, their obsession and appreciation of the written word is stunning. The dreams that it unlocks, and the spell that literature weaves on those who are denined it unravels in a most beautiful and interesting way.
The book itself is a treasure, with beautifully printed jacket pages and a grippping cover photography..... this book is simple and short, but will leave you with a lot to talk about once it is finished. I bought this on Amazon as it was recommended to me due to other books I have rated highly- and I am so glad that I did. It is a rare and great find, in a small and simple way.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Young Adult fiction
By Charles T. Markee
The good news about this YA novel was the immersion into Mao period culture and the revelation (if you didn't already know it) of the cultural suppression imposed at that time.
Also, the book was beautifully crafted writing and in that sense a joy to read. That said, the plot line wandered a bit and had very little tension considering the milieu in which it was set. It was not even close to a page turner, although it was interesting primarily because of the setting.
As a character driven novel, IMHO, it falls into a more literary category.
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